Microbiology

The number of COVID-19 cases may rise again, an expert has warned, noting that new variants may have escaped tests conducted recently.

The new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Bulgaria for the last 24 hours are 685, according to the data of the Unified Information Portal.

5383 tests were done, which means that the share of positive results is 12.7 percent.

Four patients with confirmed coronavirus infection have died.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19, in a latest social media post.

Koca said he tested positive for coronavirus five days ago and affirmed that he will continue to work on the recent regulation on health workers' rights via online meetings.

"Soon, I will be among my friends," the minister said.

A significant decline in the number of COVID-19 infections in the next two or three weeks is expected, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has expressed.

"The number of daily infections has decreased to some 10,000," Koca said while talking to journalists on Aug. 23.

According to the minister, the hospitalization numbers are also on the decline.

290 are the new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bulgaria, registered in the last 24 hours, according to information on the Unified Information Portal.

Cases were reported after 1,651 tests were performed, meaning positive results were reported in 17 percent of tests.

Greece does not plan to return to the strict restrictive measures even in the event of a new wave of the epidemic in the autumn, reports the Greek Ministry of Health.

Athena also received a monkeypox vaccine.

The duration of the isolation of patients with COVID-19, as well as the quarantine for contact persons, is shortened from today, August 18. Patients with laboratory-proven COVID-19 will be subject to isolation for a period of 7 days, instead of 10 days as before, and contact persons will be subject to a 5-day quarantine (so far, the quarantine lasted 7 days) , specified by the Ministry of Healt

With COVID-19 continuing to infect people, according to the weekly statistics of the Health Ministry, an expert has warned citizens of another possible increase in cases in September.

As the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, Danish company Bavarian Nordic has seen its order book fill up as the usually rare disease spreads around the world.

Modern strains that resemble the 1338 strain have been found in rodent populations around the Tian Shan Mountains